Written by
Dee Loflin, SMT Manager/Writer
Dexter, Missouri – VFW Post 2659 is having a Membership Drive during the month of March and would like you to join!
“Any new member that joins during March 2013 will get their membership dues and fees paid,” commented Steve Rahm, Commander of the Dexter VFW Post 2659. “After that membership dues are $25.00.”
Currently there are 63 members from the Dexter area, including folks from Puxico, Bloomfield and Bernie.
They take pride in their organization and their eligibility qualifications. There are three primary requirements to join the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. One is you must be a U.S. citizen or U.S. national, second you must have had honorable service in the Armed forces of the United States and third you must have had service entitling you to the award of a recognized campaign medal or as set forth in the Congressional Charter and By-Laws and Manual of Procedure and Ritual. This means if you have received a campaign medal for overseas service; have served 30 consecutive or 60 non-consecutive days in Korea; or have ever received hostile fire or imminent danger pay, then you are eligible to join.
Why should you join the VFW? There are so many businesses across this great country of ours that support and appreciate your service. They have teamed up with the VFW to offer wonderful family discounted pricing on many services and it’s their way of saying “thank you for what you have done to protect our freedom.”
There are scholarships, travel discounts, financial services, real estate services, insurance programs, health care services, prescription discount cards, computer assistance and even identity theft protection assistance.
You can get an application card from the Commander, Steve Rahm or Senior Vice Commander, Jim Bland. You may also contact Jack Mathis at 573-624-2936.
The Dexter VFW Post 2659 meets the fourth Thursday of each month and their next meeting is March 28th at 6:00 p.m. They are located on Highway 25 North next to the Eagles Lodge.
You may also go to their website, www.vfw.org and learn more about how “Veterans Are Serving Veterans” all over the state of Missouri. Once you are a member you will receive the latest news about veterans, a membership car, and you can become a Life Member or even a Legacy Life Member.
Dee Loflin, SMT Manager/Writer
Dexter, Missouri - Chrisman Tire would like to announce an Open House on Tuesday, March 5th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
They will have discounts on tires and services. There will also be drawings on the hour, but you have to be there to win!
You might even win a free set of Toyo Extenzas. These tires provide all-season handling and extended tread life for a wide range of passenger cars and minivans. So don't forget to register while you are there.
Chrisman Tire is located at 301 W. Business US Highway 60. For more information about their open house or services, call 624-7446.
Written by
Dee Loflin, SMT Manager/Writer
Dexter, Missouri – You were introduced to little Drew Albritton in a previous ShowMe Times article called, “Voice of Praise Evening of Music for Drew" and what a wonderful event this turned out to be.
Drew is a three year old little boy who has to undergo his next procedure, a stem cell transplant. Hopefully this will be the next step towards being cancer-free. His parent, Elizabeth and Mike, are so very grateful to the Dexter community for all that they have done, for each and every prayer, for all the love and support that has been sent their way. They cannot express their gratitude enough.
This Saturday, March 2nd, there will be a Used Book Sale and Bake Sale at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church fellowship hall from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
If you would like to contribute, Amy Moon is the “Gal in Charge” and she is asking for any used books, magazines, DVDs, and CDs to be donated by Friday afternoon and you can bring them to the Corner Cottage in Dexter.
The items will be sold extremely reasonable and there will also be a yummy bake sale.
As a specialty item, they have a whole truckload of brand new Williams-Sonoma cookbooks called “Holiday Favorites” for just $5 each. These normally retail for $24.95 and everyone could use another good cookbook. What a great idea for a stocking stuffer for Christmas this year.
There will be a limited number of Drew bracelets available for sale as well.
Three great door prizes will be offered and there will also be a quilt raffle. What a great way to raise some money for a wonderful little boy.
Elizabeth Carroll Albritton, originally from Dexter (Class of ’97) and her husband, Mike, also have a new baby girl that's about three months old. Mike is gonna have his hands full with her while mom is with Drew in isolation.
Drew was unfortunately diagnosed with ganglioneuroblastoma, a rare form of cancer in children. He has already undergone several rounds of chemotherapy, and he had a surgery in which the doctors were able to move about 90% of the tumor that is attached to his spine. This latest treatment, a stem cell transplant, will help Drew to re-grow bone marrow. Drew and his mother, Elizabeth will be in isolation for about a month following the procedure.
This is an awful lot for such a little boy to have to endure at such a young age. Please stop by and find a bargain book and a yummy treat and offer your kindness to a family that surely could use the support and your prayers.
A mother can never imagine having to go through something like this with her child, but with support, prayers, friends and family, a mother's spirit can be uplifted.
Here is an excerpt from Elizabeth's Albritton's Facebook page from today as so many folks want to know how little Drew is doing. Elizabeth writes, "I've gotten so many text messages about Drew today, I thought I'd just update on Facebook. I can't get back to each and every person, there have been so many, but I know you are thinking about Drew."
"We admitted to the bone marrow transplant unit this afternoon. We spent a long period of time sanitizing everything we brought. Food and my clothes must be kept outside his room. His clothes and toys can be in his room with rules. His clothes had to be packed in ziploc bags by outfit after they were washed in hot water and dried for a long period of time."
"I cannot use his bathroom at all so I have to go down the hall. A lot of people have sent well wishes for a surgery. It's actually not that kind of transplant. He will get two high dose chemo drugs over the next 5 days that will be so potent it will kill all of his bone marrow in an attempt to kill any rogue cancer cells. In order to restart its functioning, he needs a "transplant" of his own stem cells. His stem cells were harvested back in September and have been frozen ever since"
"On Tuesday, after all of his chemo is done, they will thaw his stem cells and push them through his central line. It's just a small syringe of what looks like blood. It will take just a second to push it through his line and it is done. After that, it's just a matter of waiting for his counts to recover and the cells to en-graft and start working again. It could take a few days or several and during that time he has absolutely no immune system, that is the dangerous part."
"That is why he is in isolation and can't leave his room. His biggest enemy is his own body as he has nothing to keep his natural bacteria at bay. He will take a lot of antibiotics and other things to try to prevent an infection as the slightest thing could become life-threatening."
"That's the short explanation of his transplant! Keep him in your thoughts and prayers as it will be very difficult for him over the next couple of weeks as the chemo makes him feel bad. He is doing well now, watching movies and relaxing! Thanks for all the well-wishes!"
Our thoughts and prayers to the Albritton family. We wish Drew a safe and quick recovery. Everyone will be praying for your family!
Written by
Dee Loflin, SMT Manager/Writer
Dexter, Missouri - As Christmas and New Year Holiday donations for food have all but “ran out of time” for the shelves of the Stoddard County Mission’s food pantry, the 1st Annual ShowMe Times March Madness Food Drive aims to score big with lots of food.
The food drive is patterned after the national spring college basketball tournament, matching up businesses in weekly competitions to see which one can bring in the most food. The winning business in each bracket will advance to continue play in the following week.
“Let’s make a full-court press to stock the food pantry”! exclaimed Kim Slavings, Director of the Stoddard County Gospel Mission.
Here is the game plan for the March Madness Food Drive. We are asking local businesses to go head-to-head in an all out battle to see who can collect the MOST ITEMS of food for the Stoddard County Gospel Mission. Each business will have an entry fee of $100 to participate with some of the proceeds going to the Stoddard County Gospel Mission. Slavings commented, "This is a great idea and it’s a win-win for us at the Stoddard County Gospel Mission. We can get so much community involvement when the food is needed the most."
The ShowMe Times will announce the participating businesses on March 1st. Anyone in the community who wishes to donate to those businesses may do so. You don't have to be an employee to donate. "We want everyone who goes into one of those businesses to drop off something that the Mission can utilize," stated Dee Loflin, Manager of the ShowMe Times.
Then each Friday in the month (March 8, 15, 22, Thursday 28th as Friday is a holiday and the Mission will not be open) the Stoddard County Gospel Mission will help with receiving the donations from those businesses. The Mission will also help calculate the winners in each bracket and assist the ShowMe Times with scoring.
Each business can bring their donations anytime during the week, but the food must be at the Stoddard County Gospel Mission no later than 3:00 p.m. on the dates above.
To ensure that businesses of all sizes are able to compete on a level playing field, the ShowMe Times will use a unique scoring system. The total number of food items donated by a business will be divided by the total number of employees in that business, resulting in their score for that week. That way large businesses with lots of employees are on equal grounds with perhaps a very small business.
Now this is where it gets interesting! We don't want businesses to stop playing or taking in donations of food once they have "lost" in their bracket. Losing businesses now have an advantage to "block" their former opponents by donating their food to the Stoddard County Gospel Mission in one of the business's who is still participating and so forth. When it's down to the final game (week) all businesses can "slam dunk" their donations towards one of the two finalists to help them win!
The ShowMe Times will keep you informed weekly as to the winners and losers, their scores and how many items have been donated. Hopefully there will be some friendly competitions.
"We need non-perishables such as can goods, spaghetti, rice, cereal, beans, peanut butter, soups, mac & cheese, canned tuna, canned vegetables, noodles, spaghetti sauce, drink mix packages, ramen noodles, boxed cornbread, just about anything that is non-perishable and folks would eat regularly." stated Slavings. "You wouldn't believe how many of the elderly we see on a fixed income and they are so appreciative of anything we can offer."
The winning business will receive recognition in the community receiving three months of front-page advertising with the ShowMe Times. And of course the big winner will be the people in our community who get their food from the Mission.
“This is an awesome opportunity to pull everyone together to help those in need in Stoddard County,” stated Loflin. “It is also a great way to showcase those businesses who are helping one another in our community.”
Businesses wishing to participate should contact the ShowMe Times no later than Thursday, February 28th. They may call 573-624-7469 or 573-380-3318 or emailing us at news@showmetimes.com
The winner of the 1st March Madness Food Drive will be announced on April 1, 2013.
Stoddard County businesses, WE NEED YOUR HELP! Let's show The Mission what we can do for them!
Written by
Dee Loflin, SMT Writer
Dexter, Missouri – Gaige Willems is fighting the battle against cancer. This is the second time his leukemia (Acute Lymphblastic) has returned. When his mother, Misty, learned they were going to have to fight again, they were devastated. They knew it was going to be a challenge and the community has come together to support and pray for the Willems family.
Gaige is only 10 years old, but he is a real trooper and loves basketball. Facebook page his parents set up is call Gaige’s Battle off the Court and you can follow his progress as he fights this terrible disease.
Cancer never takes a break. Monday was no holiday for Gaige as headed back to St. Louis to start another round of chemo. Each day is a blessing as his family prays for the cancer to finally go away for good. So many people have reached out to help the Willems family and Angie Laden is no different.Angie wanted to raise money to help offset the costs of so many expenses the Willems’ family is facing so she decided to have a T-Shirt fundraiser. The T-shirts are awesome and sport the Peace, Love Cure for Leukemia on one side and Gaige's Battle Off the Court on the back. Orange is the cancer awareness ribbon color for leukemia.
BA Promotions in Dexter, Missouri is also helping and printing the t-shirts! The T-Shirts are $20 each with 50% of the proceeds going straight to the Willems family. You can order sizes youth small all the way up to adults 3X.
You can stop by BA Promotions, fill out an order form and pay for the shirt. You may also contact Angie Laden on her Facebook page or by calling her at 573-624-4804 or 573-421-5029. Angie stated you could also contact her via her email, laden91@gmail.com. She will be more than happy to email anyone an order form or drop one off. All checks must be made out to Angie Laden.Orders must be placed by Thursday, February 28th.
Hurry and get your t-shirts now and wear to the “Prayers for Gaige” Fundraiser on Saturday, March 30 at the Dexter Park and Recreation Gym in East City Park.
